BLOG: Music Heals

Hey friends. How we holding up? Navigating okay?

Despite the darkness in the world right now, my own back porch is kinda quiet… which is preferable. I’ve been busy doing things like eating better, rearranging the house, selling things on ebay, more STARSLAM pages, journaling/self-help stuff, etc etc etc. Keeping my nose out of the noise of the world is the goal. Resisting reading the headlines and not listening to the youtubers rant is how that is done. Keeps me focused on my here and now. And in that aspect, I am doing okay. Bills are paid, not much else. I skirt by okay. Next month I will be at my day job for twelve years! That’s absolutely insane to actually see that reality, but its true. The years blur together and I count down the minutes to get to the things I want to get to. We’ll talk about that some other time.

For now, I just keep my head down and work. Work on health. Work the day job. Work on the creative stuff. All these things have their various rewards. PLEASANT LIFE issues are being printed now and should come sometime soon. STARSLAM is still rolling out on the Patreon. I can’t complain. And now for those reading PLEASANT LIFE here on the Substack, we’re getting toward the end. Seeing Lucas’ happy ending is quite nice don’t you think?

It’s good when someone can fight through the things that hold them back to get to the win. It’s even better when we realize that it is ourselves doing it. Overcoming your own bullshit is the key. I’m not great at it, but I am able to hit a base run here and there.

Music helps! I keeps my mind off my mind. I was thinking about future travels I want to do and a lot of them deal with pop culture/locations. One of them is Memphis. I’ve been through there before but didn’t get to stop. I’m not much of an Elvis fan but I do intend to hit Graceland someday just to say I did. My dad is a big Elvis guy, so it will kind of be to honor him. I also want to visit the civil rights museum there. But one of the main things is related to music, specifically Jeff Buckley. Toward the end of his life, he moved into a small house in Memphis and was working on his follow up album. Before he got to do it, he passed away due to an accidental drowning in a small channel that leads into the Mississippi River. He was only 30 years old. I’ve had Jeff on my mind this week because on Reddit someone posted this:

Can you imagine finding a SIGNED COPY of a CD from one of your favorite (and now since passed) artists and only for a handful of bucks?? Talk about finding a treasure chest filled with gold and covered in four leaf clovers! So I had Jeff on my mind and this week at work I really dove deep into a lot of his live albums I own but haven’t got to. The Jeff Buckley story isn’t a happy one, but that music was unreal and that voice… that voice… wow.

I plan to go to Memphis and his old house is actually an Air B&B now. You can rent it and stay there. Of course he died in 1997 and its since been renovated, but there’s something about being in a place where things happened and people were. You get a vibe and I am looking forward to it. Someone also made Kurt Cobain’s Olympia, Washington apartment (where he wrote about 75% of his total musical output) into an Air B&B as well and you can stay there. Perhaps doing these things are a bit morbid, but I don’t intend to go there for that. It’s about the vibe and honoring that person. Getting connected to them more. I know also I can go to the actual part of the river where Jeff drowned. That is the morbid part. Why would I subject myself to that experience? I am not sure I will, to be honest. But these sorts of things make people feel more real and human. The connection grows. The art they made is one thing. To be in the place and see the things is another. I’ve been to famous locations and graves and it usually is a humbling, surreal and spiritual experience. Most of the people who’s work I admire have since passed on, so that is all I have left beyond the work they left behind. To connect with the PERSON beyond the myths and art, one can pursue these things. I intend to.

Not a very uplifting thought is it? Well, to me its about a deeper connection to the people, places and things that I love. But it ain’t all about dead heroes. Some are still with us and you can see their work as well. I am getting ready to see RUSH again within the next twenty days or so. Here is a playful “selfie” that the drummer Anika did at a recent show at the end with the boys:

I guess that is the way I connect with the art. Some things, people and places are just powerful. I remember years ago I went to the Rock Hall of Fame and they had a Lennon exhibit. Great stuff like his Sgt Peppers outfit, hand written lyrics, his Oscar for Let it Be and then this:

This is John’s bloody glasses and clothes he was wearing the night he was shot. Morbid, right? (I censored them here for people who might be sensitive to such things. If you really want to see them, google them. Or see the glasses on the later Yoko Ono album cover.) Along with these stunning visuals was a message from Yoko about the shock of gun violence. I get where she was going, but it effected me so emotionally, I wept right there in front of everyone. It was a powerful connection, looking through the “eyes” of the man whose work you’ve enjoyed. It makes them human and reminds you of your own mortality. Things. I like things. I keep some things that are morbid. Its that connection that fascinates me.

Now there are certain lines I will not cross and maybe some of these things and places I will go see will be “too much” and I might regret it. OR I might be enriched in some personal way because, indeed, art to me is personal. Isn’t it for everyone? At least to those who would drill down and pay attention to such things. There’s something about being in Ford Theater where the gun that killed Abraham Lincoln is displayed. It’s a morbid museum but makes things feel real. So real. So even if I do sit in Jeff’s house and take it all in, or get emotional visiting the place where he last stepped into the water before he accidentally drowned I will try to take it in with proper context. Not for the morbid aspects, but to connect with the PERSON more. I hope that makes sense. It’s something I think about a lot. It’s like when something happens to you and you have to go back to the scene of the crime. The memories fire at you and you reflect and then…. are left with gratitude. Whatever “good” that came out of the thing you are seeing and experiencing. Yes, I’m sad Jeff drowned in an accident. I’m sad for his family and fans that they didn’t get more art from him. But somehow it connects me to the art he made even deeper. And to connect to the person behind the art. Art is always a reflection of those who make it. It’s part of the experience for me beyond just shaking my ass at the beat.

So all this is in my future, I hope. Just gotta stay patient. Keep going. Get the next page done. Write more… I got shit to do! Better go off and get it done!

Much love, T

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